The 2nd lab note in my series about the local-first task framework I've been working on w/ @pvh.ca is out! Topics include distributed coordination, the router takeover protocol, offline resilience... check it out at www.inkandswitch.com/patchwork/no...

I've been working with @pvh.ca on a local-first task framework at @inkandswitch.com. It distributes computation across users' computers, keeps working while you're offline, and syncs results back to everyone when you reconnect. First lab note is up. www.inkandswitch.com/patchwork/no...

Reminder: LIVE Programming workshop submissions due July 21. liveprog.org

One of the biggest production users of Ohm that we know of is Shopify. They used Ohm in the Liquid HTML parser that powers their prettier plugin & VS Code language server — as well as the Shopify Admin's CodeMirror-based editor. www.npmjs.com/package/@sh...

New longform @inkandswitch.com essay! 📜 Malleable Software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps by me, @joshuahhh.com, @pvh.ca and @seaofclouds.com inkandswitch.com/essay/mallea... It's about why people need agency over their software tools, and how to make that happen.

what if you could model a problem in a spreadsheet, and then instantly start applying powerful *filters* to explore your space of options? that's the idea @alexwarth.bsky.social and I have been exploring recently at @inkandswitch.com ... 1/

Last week I finished my research residency at @inkandswitch.com. Here's some rough documentation of what I worked on during that time vezwork.github.io/polylab/dist...

The Ink team at Ink & Switch is starting something new — publishing our internal lab notes. These are (mostly) unedited, with all our puzzling and musing and prototypes unfiltered. Take a peek: inkandswitch.com/ink/notes/

What if a spreadsheet cell could hold multiple values at the same time? That's the idea behind Ambsheets, a project I've been working on w/ @geoffreylitt.com at @inkandswitch.com. It's a new spreadsheet that makes it easier for you to explore many possibilities simultaneously. 1/2

Logic Game, 2005. I made this logic circuit simulator to learn Etoys, Alan Kay & co.'s programming language for kids. I represented the state of the wires and logic gates with their "costumes" -- there is no hidden state. This makes the behavior of the circuits visible. 1/3

Used my Ohm JS harness to design & implement a little programming language for Finite Cellular Automata and then shipped it as a toy into Patchwork. It's really cool to be able to work on a little programming language and pop out to change the syntax without even reloading my browser.

Sketchpad running on the iPad! (This is my plug for the @inkandswitch.com wrapper, check it out at github.com/inkandswitch...)

Fellow technologists: next time you use 'incredibly' in a sentence, consider omitting it altogether. You'll be *incredibly* glad you did.

Constraint-Based Spreadsheet, 2014. An attempt to make spreadsheets more powerful and user-friendly by replacing one-way formulas with multi-way constraints. Check out the source code (@ohmjs.org inside!) and play with the live demo at github.com/harc/constra...

Graphing Scrubbing Calculator, 2013. I was inspired by @worrydream.com "scrubbing calculator" to explore UIs in which some of the text you type gets widget-like superpowers automatically.

This mini-documentary about David Lynch making one of my favorite records of recent years is great, and I have seldom felt so vigorously in agreement with any statement as this one: "All the different outlets are important to me, all the different art forms." www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfR_...

Mostly Shallow, a fun little iOS app by @spiralganglion.com → ivanish.ca/mostly-shal... "Every frame, it generates a dot per pixel of the video feed, and places the dot in 3d space using the depth data to control the z value."

Sketchpad: two-point perspective

Soccer ball launcher prototype, 2023. MicroPython / Raspberry Pi Pico, dual motor controller, and a couple of DC motors.

Alex Warth (@alexwarth.bsky.social): Much Ado About Undo www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0ri...

Sketchpad: an interactive model of vanishing points made out of point-on-line and horizontal/vertical constraints!

@ohmjs.org Look what I found in Carpinteria.

Sketchpad: a truss bridge made out of fixed length constraints. (Note that instantiation followed by dismembering gives you the equivalent of a "paste" in more modern systems.)

Sketchpad: the "dismember" operation inlines an instance into the drawing it's in. This lets you mess with its lines, etc. without changing the master. In this demo, I make two instances of drawing #2 and dismember the one on the left. The one on the right stays whole.

I made this teensy-based MIDI looper and step sequencer a few years ago, which was super fun. Excited to hack on some new music projects this year!

Sketchpad update: implementing a "new" feature with a colorful name.

“Don’t revere planning over doing. Craft’s truth emerges only through the friction of material engagement.” This whole piece is very good. ryolu.notion.site/how-to-make-...

If you're a fan of @worrydream.com's Inventing on Principle, check out Seymour, a live programming environment I made with Saketh Kasibatla

harc.github.io/seymour-live...

An oldie but a goodie, and somewhat Sketchpad-related: quick-return mechanism in Inkling. feelingisreality.com

Sketchpad: fun with text

Sketchpad: doing text using masters and instances (Thanks to Yoshiki Ohshima and Alan Kay for creating the font shapes from images in Sutherland's dissertation!)

Sketchpad: removing an attacher

Sketchpad: auto-solve mode

Sketchpad: making a honeycomb from hexagons with attachers

Sketchpad: regular hexagon

Sketchpad: more flanges and rivets

Sketchpad: creating an instance of the rivet

I've been working on a Sketchpad implementation. I'll start posting some videos...